Quotation:
We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.
I was drawn to this passage because of how it encapsulates the message described by John Perry Barlow in his “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace”. As we discussed in class, the manifesto is a response to the attack on free speech in online spaces, specifically the Telecommunications Act of 1996. There were two specific things that stood out to me about this passage. The first was the idea that the internet exists outside of the barriers of privilege and prejudice. Though the internet is very different today than it was then, and it has become very difficult to stay anonymous online, I agree that online spaces even out the playing field by giving everyone the same access to have their voices and opinions heard, no matter their background. This aspect of the internet, or "cyberspace," is very liberating. The second part that stood out to me was the idea that existing on the internet means existing outside of physical space. Barlow describes the members of cyberspace as not having "matter," which makes them liberated from traditional forms of discipline. Though, again, the internet does not feel like that anymore, it gives me insight into what the beginning of online spaces felt like. The qualities of freedom in this passage and in the entire piece are compelling.